Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 770: To ask the Minister for Education and Science further to Parliamentary Question No. 491 of 5 April 2007, if she has put in place separate arrangements to address exceptional situations, such as in new schools, for schools which were not included in the review system for DEIS as promised; and if a school (details supplied) in Dublin 11 will be included in DEIS. [20573/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the action plan for educational inclusion, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). DEIS will bring together and build upon a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

The process of identifying schools for participation in DEIS was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate. The identification process involved a survey of primary schools conducted by the (ERC in May, 2005 and the updating by them of existing data sources on levels of disadvantage in second-level schools.

My Department is putting separate arrangements in place for new schools, such as the school referred to by the Deputy, (including those created through amalgamation), opening in 2005/2006 or thereafter. In May 2007, new and amalgamated primary schools established in 2005 and 2006 were issued with a survey form similar to that which issued to schools in May 2005. The school referred to by the Deputy was among those school that returned a completed survey form to the ERC. Following on the analysis of the data by the ERC, my Department will decide on the relative position of each school in respect of the DEIS action plan. Decisions will be conveyed to schools shortly and be operable as of the commencement of the 2007/2008 school year.